Thukydides

Work is progressing briskly. The base of the seascape is now covered in epoxy putty. This did not turn out exactly how I was hoping and I had issues shaping the smaller ripples in the water. My plan for texturing the surface didn’t work and I am going to have to come up with a new plan, probably involving building up gloss medium or something like that. However the other issue is the surface is not as smooth as I would like for this, I am going to have to go in with some extra putty to smooth up some of the seams and unwaterlike shapes. Here is the current state of things after I cut off the overflow on the edges and trimmed the hole to allow the model it sit in it properly.

Looks great. If you are planning on adding sails I would suggest checking out this log: Though it is for a much larger ship, I suspect the same principles will apply.

In all likelihood I would say if the masking tape is pulling it up then the splinters were already there waiting for something to pull them up. That is very frustrating. Maybe try sticking some tape to the uncut piece before cutting it to see if anything comes up. Then if not you can go ahead with cutting.

I assume you mean the foam. It is great stuff. It is light and strong, but you can imprint shapes into it. I make all sorts of hobby stuff out of it. And if you have a hot wire cutter (I don't) you can get really crazy with it. All of the terrain below is made out of the foam.

With the model assembled it is time to turn my attention to the base. I found a bamboo tray at dollarama which was about the right size for the base. I flipped it over and used the bottom which had a lip and cut a piece of pink insulation foam to fit. I roughly positioned the model on it and cut out the hole for it to sit in. Next up I painted the base. This took many layers with sanding in between. Here is what it looked like after the first coat of primer. Then it was time to figure out the rough shape of the waves. This involved a lot of reference pictures as I have never done this before. This is only the base for them, the will be refined more in the next step. You can see in the picture how I inserted back in some small strips of foam as I adjusted the position of everything. Next up the waves need to be refined a bit more.

I believe they are the amati nails so you should be able to get them at ages of sail (one of the site sponsors) https://www.agesofsail.com/ecommerce/am4134-07-amati-brass-nails-7mm-200.html Not sure if those are the correct size, just check your size and then do some googling.

Welcome to MSW!

Welcome to MSW

Hold a test strip against the bulkheads to make sure it lays flat against them. Do this all over the hull to test all of it. Getting the faring right will make the planking much easier. I didn't fare the bow on alert enough and it caused me all sorts of headaches with the first planking layer.

They all look fantastic. Are you still planning on doing the darker ones? Also would you consider other blocks such as the ones with two notches for double strops.

I think that looks really nice. Makes it look more like a painted decoration which is what they were. Well done the colour choice is perfect and there is lots of contrast. You clearly have the ability. Great job.

Model is now all assembled with PE attached. I still need to add the cables and then it will be on to painting. You may notice that I didn’t attach any of the propellors. That is because they will be hidden under the seascape so no need to bother with them.

I began construction on the hull. The main hull was a bit warped so I had to use clamps to hold everything in the right place. Once the main structure was together I then had to do some gap filling with milliput mixed with a bit of isopropyl to make it runny. This was then sanded smooth once cured. Then I began work on the coning tower. The PE for this sure is fiddly, but it feels like this build is flying together compared with working on Alert. Though I suspect the painting will go much more slowly than the construction…

Log #2: Service History Part I - Design & Construction Thank you to everyone who has pulled up a chair to follow along with me on this journey. It really does help motivate me to do these logs when I know others find them helpful. I apologize in advance as the entries for the foreseeable future will involve more text than pictures until I actually start construction. My Alert log was an exploration of ship modeling from a beginner perspective. I tried to show my thought processes working through the necessary modeling techniques (both the successes and failures). This log I plan to focus on the why of ship modeling. What sources informed my modeling decisions, why did I choose those sources and so on. We are going to start by working our way through the history of Perseus, then we will consider some of the key sources of information available to us and hopefully by the time we get through all that I will have started building the model and I will have stuff to show you. HMS Perseus was a 20-gun Sphinx class 6th rate post ship launched in 1776. As was previously noted, post ships were the smallest ship rated to be commanded by a post captain, larger than a sloop, but not as large as a frigate. Draught of HMS Sphinx, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London. ZAZ3917, 23 April 1773. The Sphinx class ships were designed by John Williams, the surveyor of the Navy from 1765 to 1784. In this time he designed at least 21 different classes of ships ranging from the 100-gun Royal Sovereign to the 10-gun Childers. List of Sphinx Class Post-Ships Name Ordered Launched Out of Service Fate Sphinx 15-Apr-1773 25-Oct-1775 24-Jun-1811 Broken up Camilla 1-Dec-1773 20-Apr-1776 13-Apr-1831 Sold Daphne 1-Dec-1773 21-Mar-1776 ?-May-1802 Sold Galatea 1-Dec-1773 21-Mar-1776 ?-Apr-1783 Broken up Ariadne 10-April-1775 27-Dec-1776 1-Aug-1814 Sold Vestal 1-Aug-1775 22-May-1777 31-Oct-1777 Foundered Perseus 3-Nov-1775 20-Mar-1776 ?-Sep-1805 Broken up Unicorn 3-Nov-1775 23-Mar-1776 7-Aug-1787 Broken up Ariel 3-Jul-1776 7-Jul-1777 10-Sep-1779 Captured Narcissus 8-Jan-1777 9-May-1781 3-Oct-1796 Wrecked The Sphinx class were the first batch of 20-gun ships ordered in more than 20 years after the Glasgow, the last of the Seaford class was launched in 1757. Though the Sphinx class ships had somewhat finer lines, they were in many respects identical to their predecessors, with the same armament, approximate length and layout. They carried 9 pounder guns and had a complement of 160 souls. In total ten were built with the lead ship of the class, Sphinx, launched in 1775 and the final ship, Narcissus, launched in 1781. The first of them were built at Navy dockyards, but with the start of the revolutionary war in North America and shipbuilding capacity stretched, additional ships were ordered to be built by contract at private yards. HMS Perseus was constructed at Cuckols Point, a private dockyard in Rotherhithe, London, England. Her sister ship, HMS Unicorn, was also contracted to the dockyard in 1775 with both ships being launched in March 1776. The Sphinx class post-ships saw service over a turbulent period of the RN’s history. It was a period of war, from the revolutionary war in America to the French Revolutionary Wars, and a time of technological change, with the advent of the carronade. Many of the Sphinx class served in the North American theater in the early part of their careers and those that were not broken up or sold during the peace went on to serve at various stations in the French Revolutionary Wars. The last to remain in service, HMS Camilla, was sold on the 13th of April, 1831.

As Alan said you best bet is probably to get someone with a cricut to cut you some stencils into contact paper and then airbrush on the letters. However If you can't find anyone to do that then you could also consider painting over the transfers once they are on. As long as you pick a similar colour you can stop your painting just short of the edge and the lighter colour will serve as a bit of a highlight. That way you can you can tint the transfer such that it looks right while still getting the benefit of the crisp lines.

Part of the reason I picked this scale is if I want to do a larger ship I have the option at this scale. And my OCD demands that all my ships be the same scale. Also it is small which allows some cheating on the painting.

Great job. This is how it starts, as you skills improve you start to realize with just a little bit more effort you could improve that other thing as well. Before you know it you are kitbashing everything.

Congrats, she looks very nice

Yes, if Alert took three years (granted with a 6 month break in the middle) I expect this is going to take 5 or more. Apart from the larger size and all the extra time required to build everything from scratch, this time I have resolved that I must find sources (ideally primary ones) for just about everything so I imagine that is going to slow things down a lot. I am working on a research document which I am using to summarize and organize my thoughts and it has already reached 150 pages (and I haven't even begun researching the rigging).

Thank you to everyone for your kind comments. I am glad so many of you have been able to come on this journey with me. I had previously promised I would talk more about what I plan next once Alert was complete so here is the current plan: I am planning to take a short break from wooden ship modeling to do a smaller plastic project. I will be building a Type VIIC Uboat using the Hobby Boss kit. I am planning to stick pretty close to the kit so don’t expect to see much bashing here. Only addition I am planning is to set her in a seascape. Though I don’t plan to post as much detail as in this log I will be documenting my progress here. My next wooden ship will be HMS Perseus, a 20 gun Sphinx class post ship. I had originally planned to kitbash the vanguard kit, but the number of changes I was planning got so long that I figured better just do it from scratch. I will be depicting her as she appeared around 1781 when commanded by Richard Dacres. I will be doing a detailed build log which you can find here. I don’t expect to start making sawdust for a few months yet. However, if you are interested in following me on a deep dive into the ship and the people who served on her I will be summarizing some of my research in the early log posts.

Log #1: Introduction HMS Perseus was a 20-gun Sphinx class post ship launched in 1776. Post ships were the smallest ship rated to be commanded by a post captain, larger than a sloop, but not as large as a frigate. She saw service in one of the most turbulent periods of the Royal Navy’s history. She took part in both the American revolutionary war and the French revolutionary war under at least 11 different commanders from Captain George Keith Elphinstone to Commander Thoms Searle. In many ways she was an example of the changing technology of naval combat being one of the first Royal Navy ships to be coppered and an early adopter of the carronade. Late in her career she was converted to a bomb ship before being broken up in 1805 after almost 30 years of service. I plan to depict Perseus as she appeared under the command of Captain James Dacres between 1780 and 1783. My goals for this build are: Build Quality - I learned a lot on Alert, but the quality of my work was not uniformly to a high standard. The goal for this build is to improve on my consistency to bring all parts of the model up to a higher standard. Historical Accuracy - I am aiming to make this as historically accurate a model as possible. As much as possible I am attempting to trace every aspect of the build back to primary sources. Artistic Coherence - At the end of the day the model is a piece of art and so it needs to aesthetically come together. Design decisions will also be informed by aesthetic considerations where there are more than one historically valid options.

Welcome to my build log for documenting progress on my scratch build of HMS Perseus using @Alex M's Sphinx plans as a starting point. In order to keep this organized I have reserved this first post for a table of contents in order to allow future readers to jump ahead to sections they are interested in if so desired. I will also include any significant resource links in this first post so they are all together in one place. Related Threads & Resources Transcription of the Contract for Perseus & Unicorn HM 20-Gun Ship Perseus Chapters 1-2 & Appendices Table of Contents Log #1: Introduction Log #2: Service History Part I - Design & Construction Log #3: Service History Part II - George Keith Elphinstone Log #4: Service History Part III - George Keith Elphinstone Continued Log #5: Design Considerations Log #6: Service History Part IV - James Richard Dacres Log #7: Service History Part V - St. Alban Roy, George Palmer and John Gibson Log #8: Service History Part VI - Conversion to an Unrated Bomb Ship Log #9: Researching the Knee of the Head Part I Log #10: Depictions of Perseus Log #11: Researching the Knee of the Head Part II Log #12: First Draft of the Research Document Log #13: A Research Rabbit Trail Log #14: Practice Makes Perfect Log #15: Construction Begins Log #16: The Build Board & Dry Fitting Log #17: The Platforms Log #18: Securing the Model Log #19: Beginning the Knee of the Head, Stem and Keel Log #20: Bolts, Joints & Corrections

Welcome to my log for the Hobby Boss Type VIIC U Boat. This is intended to be a short side project and so this log will likely be used to document my progress rather than explaining my thought processes in detail. I am intending to keep kitbashing to a minimum on this build with the only significant addition likely to be placing the u boat in a seascape diorama. Here is a picture of the box, next week I will begin planning the build.

Log #96: Concluding Thoughts After 2 years, 11 months and 20 days, Alert is finally finished. Overall, looking back at the experience I can say that as a beginner I would wholeheartedly recommend the Vanguard Alert kit. It is easy to follow along with and you can build a great model out of the box while also having scope to make small improvements if you desire. The first picture I took of alert back on August 3, 2021 As a general rule, I stuck pretty close to the kit with this build making small improvements here and there where I felt comfortable. Most of the changes were made with the repurposing of kit parts or random household items I had on hand and I would say any beginner with a bit of patience should be able to do a similar level of kitbashing. The largest deviations were the replacement of the rope (courtesy of @BenD) and my decision to throw caution to the wind and attempt to replicate the Marshall painting decorations. The Marshall painting of Alert I would say I both overestimated and underestimated how hard building a model ship would be. Some parts turned out better than I had hoped while others fell short. However, as a learning experience I have no complaints. In the end I think it is fair to say that I achieved a unique look that I am proud of and I look forward to doing better on the next model. I want to take a moment to thank some people without whom I would never have been able to reach the finish line. @chris watton - I have long desired to make a ship model, but had no idea how I would even go about learning how to do such a thing. Chris’ excellent model made it possible for me to enter into what is a fairly overwhelming hobby in a way that I was able to slowly build the skills necessary to actually complete it. @Blue Ensign - BE’s Alert log was my second manual. I don’t know how many times I read it through, but it is safe to say that almost all of the changes and additions I made to the build had their inspiration in BE’s log. This model would be significantly worse had his log not been there for me to follow along with. All other Alert Build logs - I have read every word of each of them at least once and have taken lessons and inspiration from all of them. MSW - I couldn’t possibly name all of the people who made critical contributions at one time or another. Your many suggestions made the model better and It is highly likely that without all your encouragement I wouldn’t have made it to the finish line. So without further ado, here are some pictures of the finished model:

Log #95: The Swivel Guns & the Pennant I decided to only show half of the swivel guns so I assembled six of them. As with all PE I filed it down to make it look less bulky. The PE handles didn’t look like the pictures I found of them so I decided to do some modifications. I had some parrel beads I had bought which were much smaller than I thought they were. So they were no good for the gaff or boom, but they are about the right size for the cascable of a swivel gun. I also noticed that in the illustrations they appeared to have the handle wrapped around the cascable. I realized the eyebolts I had were about the right size for this. So I did a bit of mixing and matching and here was the result. For the pennant I mad a number of unsuccessful attempts with silkspan, but I couldn’t find a way to stiffen it enough to hold its shape given how long an thin it is. So in the end I had to use tin foil. I still had to shorten the pennant a bit, but next time I might try a heavier duty tin foil and that might work better. Then I painted it with my airbrush (thought the cross I painted by hand). At the same time I also primed the swivel guns. I then dry brushed them in the same way I did the cannons. I thought about trying to rig the pennant properly, but in the end I decided to just glue it to the mast as I need to keep it rigid. Then I drilled some holes and added the swivel guns.